Gardening without boundaries
Derelict plots of land beware… the guerrilla gardener is on the loose in Liverpool.
The famous horticultural warrior, Richard Reynolds, who is best known for reclaiming neglected or forgotten urban turf across the world and beautifying it, is taking part in the city’s Adopt a Plot initiative.
The gardening project works with residents in South Liverpool and encourages them to adopt a plot of unloved land in their community and transform it by planting flowers or creating a vegetable patch.
Each green-fingered resident involved is documenting their growing relationship with their plot by blogging and twittering, as well as taking pictures and making videos of their progress which can all be viewed on www.adoptaplot.org. The residents have been working in partnership with the International Centre for Digital Content (ICDC) to record their progress.
To show his support for the scheme, Richard, is taking part in a special event on Friday (19 June) where he will talk to residents about the dozens of covert digs he has arranged along with hundreds of flower-empowered followers transforming roadways, roundabouts and even a few neglected window boxes!
After his talk, the expert gardener will become an honorary Adopt a Plot member and get his hands dirty at a plot in Lyden Park, giving top tips to the South Liverpool team.
Richard said: "I'm delighted to be involved in Adopt a Plot. Taking responsibility for a bit of unloved local land in a public place reaps so many benefits for the gardener and the passers-by.
“It's environmental and social regeneration. As your plants bloom, so does your familiarity with other local people.
“I’m impressed that not only are the Adopt a Plot gardeners spreading the word in the street about their gardens, they’re also sowing the seeds of their efforts online. I hope this idea will be thoroughly rampant."
Adopt a Plot is just one of the innovative projects taking place as part of this year’s Four Corners programme, which is one of the main legacy projects from the city’s Capital of Culture status.
The programme involves all of Liverpool’s neighbourhoods and links residents, cultural organisations, artists and the city council’s neighbourhood services team to explore the question “what does the environment mean to you and your neighbourhood?”
Using art, drama, poetry, planting and podcasts, hundreds of people in communities across the city will answer the environmental question in their own special way.
Other initiatives taking place across the city include scarecrow making in North Liverpool, a huge sustainable tea party in the city centre and film making about Stanley Park in the East.
The projects will culminate in a special exhibition at The Bluecoat from the 23 - 29 July – where the projects will be displayed or performed throughout the venue.
Liverpool city council’s executive member for the environment, Councillor Berni Turner, said: “It’s a real coup to have the famous guerrilla gardener in our city and all the credit should be given to those fantastic residents in the south of the city who have embraced the Adopt a Plot project and as a result, caught the attention of such a well-known expert.
“The Four Corners programme is in its fourth year and this year’s green theme is to mark the city’s Year of Environment, so it’s great that all the communities are getting involved in thinking about what the environment means to them and where they live.”
Executive member for safer stronger communities, Councillor Marilyn Fielding, said: “There has been some fantastic work already done by the people of the city, coupled with local artists, and the support of the Neighbourhood Managers has been superb."
This year cultural organisations involved with working with the communities are the Neighbourhood Management Services, ICDC, The Bluecoat, Encounters, AiR, and Everyman & Playhouse.
